The pope’s latest gift from Kentucky: A pair of custom shoes from a Lexington artist
Local priest, Father Jim Sichko, has had the privilege of meeting Pope Francis on numerous occasions, and every time he visits the Pope he likes to bring him a gift from Kentucky.
Sichko has primarily given the Pope a bottle of bourbon in the past. But Sichko wanted to get the Pope something different for his latest visit last week, so he thought of giving him customized shoes from a local shoe designer.
“I think that they thought in the box was bourbon, and when I opened it up he was like ‘wow,’” Sichko said. “They’re so bright and so stunning.”
The shoes, a pair of Nike Blazer Mid ‘77s, are white and yellow, the colors of the Papal flag. On the side of each shoe partially covering the Nike logo is the Pope’s Coat of Arms. The words “Pope” and Francis” are on the backs of each shoe.
The shoes were created by Billy Hobbs, the owner of True Blue Customs. Hobbs has always had a passion for shoes and art and has been personalizing shoes professionally since 2013.
Hoobs has designed shoes for celebrities before, including John Calipari, Drake, Kid Rock, Paul McCartney and Snoop Dogg, but making shoes for the Pope is something he never expected to do.
“I’ve done some cool stuff but that’s gotta be on the top of the list,” Hobbs said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to top that one.”
Sichko provided some ideas to Hobbs for the design but Sichko credited Hobbs for the work.
“When he presented them to me the night before I was leaving, I was just overwhelmed,” Sichko said.
Pope Francis had a similar reaction when Sichko gave him the shoes.
“I opened it up and he went ‘wow,’ and he immediately picked them and looked at them,” Sichko said. “I wanted to show him also on the back how it said, ‘Pope Francis,’ which I had the opportunity to do.”
Hobbs also customized a box for the shoes. He bought the box at a local craft store and added leather straps and the Coat of Arms to it. He also designed a traditional sneaker box tag on the side with a title “Pope Francis SE” for special edition.
Hobbs said it took him about 8 to 10 hours to make the shoes and the box. When photos started going viral of the Pope holding his customized sneakers, Hobbs was proud of the work he did.
“You can actually see Pope Francis’ face in the pictures and you can tell that he genuinely liked the gift,” Hobbs said. “That was probably the best part of it was seeing the grin on his face.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 6:51 AM.
